CTCRC Pre '66 Croft 27th & 28th July 2024

CTCRC CLASSIC SALOONS CAPTIVATE CROFT TOURING CAR CROWD
The Classic Touring Car Racing Club celebrated its 50th anniversary during 2024 and a special trio of non-championship races for the club’s Pre ‘66 series were put on at Croft in support of the BTCC’s latest event. A bustling entry of 32 1960s saloon cars was received and came from some storied names too, with three of the cars due to be shared between two drivers.

2016 BTCC runner-up Sam Tordoff now races for fun and he would be the pre-race favourite with his Class A Ford Falcon. Drift king Grant Williams can be expected to put his ex-Equipe Endeavour Mk2 Jaguar well up the order and would cut a variety of shapes in the process. Tom Sharp has shifted into historic racing in recent years after climbing the Ginetta ladder, as well as competing in the Porsche Supercup, and his immaculate Falcon Sprint shouldn’t be discounted. Alan Greenhalgh’s similar Falcon is a fixture at the front of the CTCRC Pre ‘66 championship races and would race as hard as ever. 2023 Jaguar Challenge title holder Guy Connew entered a Mk1 Jaguar with Simon Lewis. Sometime BTCC racer Simon Blanckley was the sole Class B entry with a BMW 1800ti, a model that has proved to be very effective in Europe. Not many people can make a Mini go faster than ace tuner Nick Swift and he was a standout entry in Class C with his Cooper S ‘Willow 3’. The shared Mini of double 2024 CTCRC Pre '66 race winner Joe Ferguson and car preparer Tom Bell is one of the fastest out there and could well threaten the overall podium, also look out for a rapid charge through the field when the car inevitably has to start from the rear when Bell and Ferguson each take the car over for races two and three. Former Clio Cup UK pacesetter James Dorlin should also show real speed with his Mini. Dan Lewis did the double at Mallory Park in May with his Cooper S, whilst Barry Sime’s similar car was victorious during the CTCRC’s last visit to Croft in August 2023 and both will have front-running pace. Phillip House and Michael Cullen’s Cooper Ss would also be there or thereabouts in the competitive class. Former Mercedes 190E rally driver Russell Morgan entered with another neat-as-a-pin Mini, the father of BTCC Team BMW star Adam recently made his return to racing at the Goodwood Members Meeting after a break of some twenty years. Twin brothers John and Mike Davies’ Cooper S has been raced by the family since the 1960s and still shows a good turn of speed. Championship stalwart Andy Messham’s ‘Red 5’ Mini was the final Cooper S entered. The 2023 Pre ‘66 champion Billy Kenneally headlined the non-Mini competitors in the class, his Ford Anglia’s engine now fixed after suffering piston damage at Mallory Park in May and should place the car higher up the order than you might expect. The always spectacular Michael Sheraton would be driving his Anglia at all angles and would be keen to push Kenneally hard. Father and son Kevin and Jake Swann’s mint Anglias, along with Ed Gibbs’ similar example, have each mixed it with the Minis and would look to perform more giant-killing antics. 2021 overall champion James Ibbotson was one of the pair of Class E participants with his exuberantly driven Hillman Imp and the newest member of the ’Dave Addison Fan Club’ would definitely be one to watch if it rained, with Michael Loveland’s similar car able to match Ibbotson on its day. The Lotus Cortina has long been a great all-rounder and the iconic saloon has a division of its own in Class F, with some being pedalled by drivers that have competed at the highest level. Former Marussia F1 driver and current Goodwood hill record holder Max Chilton entered in a Team Dynamics-run car, which would have rather less grip than his fan-assisted McMurtry. 2003 Le Mans 24 hours winner Guy Smith and his father Peter had a Cortina each, with Peter already a race-winner in the CTCRC championship during 2024. The Jordan Racing Team had a busy awning with six cars in their care, four of which were in Class F and David Dickenson would have his eyes on at least a podium finish. Long-time competitor Pete Chambers has always been quick in whatever he chooses to drive, whilst stablemates Patrick ‘Paddy’ Shovlin and Victor Cullen also aimed to place their JRT cars towards the sharp end. Pat Kenneally’s mount has proved to be fast-but-fragile at times and the father of reigning champion Billy hoped that it would be just the former in front of the TV cameras. The final entry in the class belonged to ex-Morris Minor pilot Keith Wright.

Qualifying: Pre-event top pick Sam Tordoff steered his Jordan Racing Team-prepared Ford Falcon to pole position by 0.722 seconds from stablemate David Dickenson’s Lotus Cortina at the completion of the twenty-minute session. Victor Cullen in another JRT Cortina nicked third late in the session to head the second row by 0.178 seconds from Guy Smith’s similar car. Paddy Shovlin was a further quarter of a second back in fifth place with his Cortina, 0.281 seconds up on Tom Sharp’s superbly presented Falcon that lined up sixth and had just 0.002 seconds in hand from Max Chilton’s Team Dynamics Cortina on the fourth row. Opening 2024 CTCRC Pre ‘66 race winner Joe Ferguson was the first Mini on the grid in eighth and was a slender 0.148 seconds quicker than Nick Swift’s example in ninth. Michael Cullen’s Cooper S completed the top ten some 0.658 seconds off Swift and James Dorlin was the last of a quartet of Minis in eleventh. Veteran racers Pete Chambers and Peter Smith lined up next with their Lotus Cortinas, ahead of a trio of Minis headed by Mallory Park double winner Dan Lewis. Russell Morgan’s long layoff hadn’t slowed him much as he put his immaculate Mini fifteenth, ahead of Scot Barry Sime’s version as they made up row eight. Current CTCRC Pre ‘66 champion Billy Kenneally qualified his Anglia inside the top twenty in seventeenth and was joined by regular sparring partner Alan Greenhalgh’s much larger Ford Falcon. The Mini Cooper S of circuit instructor Philip House and local man Simon Blanckley’s BMW rounded out the top twenty. Expected top ten runner Grant Williams qualified his Jaguar down with the Anglias of Michael Sheraton, Jake Swann and Kevin Swann Anglias in 24th, splitting the father and son. James Ibbotson was fastest of the Imps in 27th, whilst Michael Loveland qualified 2.441 seconds down on his classmate in 30th.

Race One: The opening race took place late on Saturday afternoon over twenty minutes. Poleman Sam Tordoff wasn't used to performing standing starts in his Ford Falcon but V8 power allowed him to outdrag fellow front-row starter David Dickenson’s Cortina on the run down to Clervaux and the pair stayed 1-2 from start to finish, with the Falcon prevailing by 8.688 seconds. Guy Smith leapt up to third off the line and held the spot to the flag on-the-road but a five-second track limit penalty, which multiplied to a fifteen-second total punishment after another ten seconds were added, elevated Max Chilton to the podium. The Team Dynamics Cortina made a great start to leap into fifth and started to attack Victor Cullen's similar car for fourth place as the first lap ended but ran wide attempting an outside pass at Clervaux before making a move stick at Tower for the second time. Fifth starter Paddy Shovlin was passed by Chilton at the start and by Joe Ferguson's Mini at the first corner, with Nick Swift's Cooper S also further demoting the Irishman by the end of the opening lap. Shovlin soon repassed Swift on lap two but Ferguson proved to be a tougher nut to crack as it took the Cortina until the final quarter of the race to get by at Clervaux for sixth. Ferguson wasn't dropped by the Cortina once it got ahead and the Class C-winning Mini was only half a second behind in seventh at the flag. Swift eighth long gap of nearly half a minute back to Peter Smith, who had been involved in a fierce fight with Michael Cullen which ended after the Irishman's Mini lost a wheel at Hawthorn. Current CTCRC Pre '66 title holder Billy Kenneally just held off the Dan Lewis Mini to grab a top-ten finish and claimed third in Class C with his Anglia. Lewis was the first of a quartet of Minis in eleventh as he headed home Barry Sime, Philip House and Russell Morgan. Thirteenth qualifier Peter Chambers took a trip through the first corner gravel trap but fought back up to fifteenth after ending lap one in last-but-one position. James Ibbotson had an early battle with classmate Michael Loveland before the input shaft to the gearbox broke as he went through Clervaux and put the Imp out, whilst Loveland later survived a spin to claim the Class E spoils. Of the retirements, sixth qualifier Tom Sharp stopped on the way to the grid from the assembly area with bound on front brakes, James Dorlin's engine went on his Mini during lap one and Grant Williams pitted his Mk2 Jaguar ‘Jag 400’ before retiring to the paddock with fuel pump worries.

Race Two: The second 20 minutes of racing at Sunday lunchtime was the first to be aired live on ITV4. Tom Bell was due to start this race aboard the number 34 Mini but felt unwell so Joe Ferguson would be in the car for all three outings. There was drama before the race started as third starter Max Chilton's Cortina pulled off through the shortcut from Tower on the formation lap with a faulty clutch release bearing so wouldn't take part. David Dickenson fired off the line and led the early stages in his Lotus Cortina from Sam Tordoff's polesitting Falcon. Victor Cullen held on around the outside of Guy Smith into Clervaux to hold third ahead of the Ferguson and Swift Minis that completed the initial top six but Smith swiftly took third place in the Complex at the end of lap one. Peter Smith and Billy Kenneally were also in the thick of it as Paddy Shovlin attempted to split them at Clervaux on the opening lap and the apricot Cortina had bagged the pair of them by Tower, with Kenneally’s Anglia falling into the clutches of the Philip House, Barry Sime, Pete Chambers, Dan Lewis and Michael Sheraton pack. Chambers’ Cortina and Sime’s Mini had got ahead of the Anglia before Tower but the Class C pair went into lap two side-by-side and the Cooper S stayed ahead on the inside of Clervaux as a flying Tom Sharp arrived on their tails, whilst Russell Morgan also got ahead of Sheraton’s Anglia. At the head of the field, the first four cars had remained close until Tordoff powered ahead of Dickenson on lap three down to Clervaux. Dickenson settled into a solo second as the leading Falcon flew away to victory by 4.038 seconds. Guy Smith was under pressure throughout from Cullen's similar car but the strain was eased when the Irishman received a five-second track limit penalty but that didn’t stop Cullen taking a lunge at the hairpin with four minutes to go. The 2003 Le Mans winner later received a similar penalty for the second race in a row but it didn’t affect his overall position. Joe Ferguson, Nick Swift and Paddy Shovlin had another great scrap in a repeat of Race One, with the Cortina splitting the evenly-matched Minis after nine minutes before deposing Ferguson at half distance into Clervaux but the Irishman was another to cop a track limit penalty so Ferguson took fifth. However, the Mini was lucky to finish as it had stripped second gear coming out of the hairpin for the last time. Shovlin's penalty only cost the Cortina one spot as he was classified sixth ahead of Swift's Mini. Tom Sharp’s Falcon soared through the order after going outside of the floppy markers approaching Clervaux off the start to avoid Alan Greenhalgh’s similar car before ending the opening lap on the tail of Lewis’ Mini in thirteenth, he then took the House Mini to break into top ten on lap three before thundering ahead of Peter Smith at the start of lap four but there his flight up the order stalled with a near ten-second gap to make up to the Ferguson/Swift/Shovlin tussle. Sime and House were at play with their Minis as they swapped places through Barcroft for the fifth time and just ahead of them, Peter Smith lunged inside Chambers for ninth at the hairpin. Chambers doorbanged back ahead at Clervaux a few laps later as Sime arrived with them, the trio in turn being caught by Michael Cullen’s recovering Mini and the Cooper Ss would eventually swap places. Chambers took the flag in ninth and Smith staved off a last-corner lunge from Cullen to complete the top ten. Michael Sheraton got on TV with a bold move on Greenhalgh’s Falcon at Sunny Out for fourteenth overall, the Falcon eventually repassed the Anglia along the pit straight and the pair were later passed by James Dorlin’s Mini on its own recovery drive, with an engine generously loaned by Joe Ferguson’s team. Billy Kenneally's continued fight with Dan Lewis' Mini from Saturday came to an end on the fifth lap when the Anglia started to smoke from a damaged oil cooler and the defending CTCRC Pre '66 champion wisely pulled off at the chicane, with Lewis also quickly following suit with a cracked gearbox casing that would force him to miss the finale. The James Ibbotson Class E-winning Imp lost its exhaust mid-race and when he stopped to collect the errant part at the Complex on the cool-down lap he milked the crowd’s adulation with a bow, much to their delight! Classmate Michael Loveland's clutch master cylinder was found to be leaking after Race One so the offending item was changed overnight but the repairs were in vain as the Imp suffered a broken suspension arm when Loveland was pushed over the Clervaux apex kerb after contact sent Greenhalgh’s Falcon sideways and caused some bunching in the pack. Kevin Swann’s Anglia was also forced out in the same incident and his son Jake was also involved, along with Ed Gibbs’ similar car after the trio arrived abreast and were confronted by the Falcon. Grant Williams replaced the fuel pump on his Mk2 Jaguar after his Dad drove up with a spare overnight to get the car out again and the Big Cat crossed the line in eighteenth.

Race Three: The third twenty-minute encounter was the last race of the weekend and was carried live on ITV4 once more. Joe Ferguson won a race against time to start after replacing the gearbox and the engine was out of the car just an hour and a quarter before the race was due to start. Sam Tordoff made up for his slightly tardy getaway on Sunday morning to lead Race Three from lights to flag for a dominant 15.609-second victory and completed a terrific treble. Guy Smith made a superb start from the second row to briefly get his nose in front of Tordoff before the Falcon's V8 grunt put the polesitter back ahead by Clervaux. Front row starter David Dickenson made a sluggish start after missing a gear and fell behind fellow Irishmen Paddy Shovlin and Victor Cullen in their Cortinas. The fast-starting Shovlin’s tenure of third place lasted as far as Sunny In where a locked brake sent him across the grass and down the order behind Cullen and Dickenson. Cullen only lasted a couple more laps when he was forced out with a nearside-front puncture to put Dickenson back into the podium placings and Shovlin chased his compatriot home in fourth. Max Chilton followed up brother Tom’s BTCC victory in the race prior with an outstanding charge from 29th on the grid to fifth. The Cortina was up to nineteenth after lap one and had broken into the top ten on lap four. He then took four laps to catch the Tom Sharp/Joe Ferguson/Nick Swift battle and split the Minis through the Jim Clark Esses on lap eight and had cleared all of them on lap nine with moves into Clervaux and Sunny Out. Chilton then closed from 8.046 seconds to within 2.250 seconds of Shovlin’s fourth place in the remaining four laps before running out of time. Ferguson and Swift were nose to tail in their chase of Sharp’s Falcon for much of the duration, the nimble Cooper Ss both got around the Yank Tank in the final corners of lap one before Sharp gobbled them up again rumbling down to Clervaux. The Swiftune boss slid by Ferguson at Sunny Out with a little under four minutes remaining and repeated the move on Sharp’s Falcon a lap later to take fifth for a few hundred metres until the Falcon bellowed past again. However, Ferguson had stuck with the green Mini and made a last corner dive to grab the Class C win from Swift by a slim 0.107 seconds and almost got the giant Sharp Falcon too. Sharp was hit with a five-second track limits penalty before the flag so the pair of Minis beat the American brute anyway. Another pair of Minis completed the top ten in the hands of James Dorlin and Michael Cullen and the pair had been involved in a thoroughly entertaining dice with the Pete Chambers and Peter Smith Cortinas. Barry Sime’s Cooper S held off Alan Greenhalgh’s brawny Falcon by less than a second as the CTCRC regulars tussled over thirteenth and fourteenth behind Smith. Russell Morgan’s spotless Ciceley Cooper S was classified in fifteenth after receiving another track limits censure, having headed home Sime by a Mini length. James Ibbotson and Michael Sheraton found each other for some late-race sideways fun like at Cadwell Park in April and the misfiring Anglia crossed the finish line just 0.055 seconds ahead of the Class E winner in a photo finish. Ibbotson’s Imp had lost its exhaust again but still headed home Michael Loveland’s repaired similar car by a shade over 29 seconds. Reigning champion Billy Kenneally had made good progress into the top twenty early on but went out on the fourth lap with climbing oil temperatures aboard his Anglia so called it a day to save the recently rebuilt engine.

The Pre ‘66 cars rejoin the full CTCRC championship bill at Snetterton on the 17th and 18th of August.